An Exercise in Futility
by aeotae
Summary: Gray discovers that he's going to have to step up his game if he wants to get any Lucy action. Unfortunately, he's playing against a professional. Gray/Lucy, Loke/Lucy, Gray/Lucy/Loke ish
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or ideas from Fairy Tail, nor do I make any money from this work.

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**An Exercise in Futility**

Part 1 of 2

When he realizes that Lucy has stopped protesting every time that Happy claims she is in love with someone, Gray becomes suspicious. He stealthily begins lingering by nearby posts and around convenient corners to find out more (he pretends not to notice the similarities between himself and his own stalker).

He discovers nothing, but, having seen him peering at Lucy from over his shoulder and behind a pole while mostly naked, Erza discovers at least five new ways to make him beg for mercy.

Normally garnering Erza's attention would make him abruptly turn around his behavior out of self-preservation, but Gray is either very brave or very stupid because he does not stop surreptitiously investigating Lucy's love life.

One day, while he is nonchalantly relaxing in the guild's hall, he notices Macao and Wakaba attempting to determine the exact dimensions of Lucy's ample bosom. Another day, he discovers that Jet and Droy will occasionally halt their adoring veneration of Levy in order to watch the way that Lucy's skirt puffs up slightly when she flops herself dejectedly in front of Mira at the bar. As Gray is both clever and cool, he responds to these revelations by insulting the legitimacy of dragon slayer magic until Natsu is heated up enough to accidentally scorch all perverts, old and young alike, in a radius of fifty yards. Gray feels victorious when all four guilty parties must retreat in tattered clothing (it's a bonus that he also gets to watch as an angry Erza forces Natsu to repair all collateral damages).

He realizes that he may have been somewhat overzealous with defending Lucy's honor at about the same time he realizes that he still has no idea what might have caused Lucy's sudden reticence towards her love life.

Still, he dislikes the idea of other men looking at her. He almost wishes that she would develop a sudden interest in maidenly clothing (almost). He dislikes these feelings of confusion and finds himself longing for simpler times, times when he only had to be around Lucy for a mission or two to see most of her assets, and he could always go home knowing that she wasn't going to get a boyfriend over night.

Lucy'd never shown an actual ability to be involved in a romantic relationship before. She'd become practically immune to Natsu's tendency to show up in her bed and Gray's own habit of stripping to his skivvies. She barely even batted an eye at Loke's never-ending barrage of pick-up lines and romantic declarations, and that guy had had a near perfect batting average even before he regained his celestial glow. Oddly enough, this last thought did not help to settle Gray's thoughts.

Loke: celestial lion spirit who was literally attached to Lucy's hip, could summon himself to her side no matter where she was, and had declared himself her knight in shining armor. Gray can train Natsu to sleep in his own bed, punish Macao for leering perversely, and sic Mirajane on Ji-chan when he tries to cop a feel on Lucy, but he realizes that he can't do a damn thing about Loke. It would be unethical to steal the key that grants Loke free access to Lucy whenever he wants it (he often wants it so that he can save her life).

Gray tries to convince her to leave the lion key at home when she isn't on a job, but Lucy just laughs and reminds him that, in Fairy Tail, danger lurks around every corner. She smiles at Gray the entire time he talks to her, but, when she talks about how she never knows when she might need to call on Loke, her smile seems to be slightly different. Gray recognizes the threat that lies in the curve of her lips.

Gray determines to move to the defensive. Now that he has identified his enemy, he can determine a strategy.

He knows Loke. He's known him as long as the lion spirit had been masquerading as a ring-wielding mage, and he had never had a reason to dislike him before. In fact, they've always been friends. They have things in common; they don't break promises, and they don't let anyone get away with hurting their loved ones. He hates to have to fight against him, but he can't stand the thought of someone else getting to look at Lucy when he can't.

So, instead, when they find themselves in dangerous battles, Gray becomes twice as likely to stay by Lucy's side rather than rushing off to engage a distant opponent. If Lucy is not in danger, she is much less likely to call on her strongest spirit for aid.

They are on a routine job (find dark wizards, destroy dark wizards), Natsu is brashly fighting the meddlesome groups's leader, and Erza is smoothly wiping out their grunt force. A rogue tries to escape her vengeance, but he has to run through Gray and Lucy first. Gray could easily take him down with any number of ice forms, but, before he even gets a chance, the wizard has launched a high-speed blast of dark magic towards Lucy. She is nearly hit, but Gray is close enough to sweep her into his arms and behind a shield of ice. He'd been fast enough to save her, but not fast enough to stop Loke from summoning himself to the scene.

Gray holds Lucy a little tighter; her head is tucked against his chest as he cradles it protectively with a barely free hand. She's clinging to him, just a little. For just a moment, the only expression on Loke's face is one of profound relief; Lucy is safe. Gray can see his eyes dart over her body frantically, and he knows that the spirit is looking for any sign that he'd failed in his duty. Gray lets him, because he feels the need to check Lucy over for signs of pain as well.

Once assured that all is right with the world, Gray allows himself to smirk. Loke is now glaring at him from behind his blue shades and briefly looks like he's considering calling forth the power of Regulas even though the offending dark wizard has already been swept back into Erza's warpath. The lion and the ice mage exchange looks of significant intention and recognize their rivalry with nods of significant acceptance. Lucy is oblivious as she blushes at being so close to Gray's skin.

Gray rallies himself; he knows that Loke is capable of more than silly light shows and shallow flirting. Emboldened by the way she'd blushed when he'd rescued her, Gray sets out to be her protector in all things. He walks alongside her and Plue when she insists on walking along the canal wall. He smiles and makes a shield of ice around her the next time Natsu starts an all-guild brawl at the bar.

He then begins a multiple-front assault on Lucy's affection. He stops trying to read her novel (even though he really wants to know what happens next) because he knows she puts a high value on her promise to Levy. When he shows up to Lucy's apartment uninvited, he now makes sure to knock at the door. He even attempts to curb his exhibitionist habit, but soon realizes that it's a lost cause.

Instead, he smirks at her in a way that he knows is devilishly charming whenever she protests his partial nudity. Lucy blushes every time, but she also stops protesting-even when he doesn't put his clothes back on.

Once Lucy is no longer annoyed at him at least 50% of the time (and maybe even a little intrigued on occasion), Gray moves onto the next stage of his plan.

He persuades Mirajane, who had been rooting for him ever since the ice-shield incident, to help him make a delicious meal so that he can bring it to Lucy after she exhausts herself trying to keep Natsu from destroying all of Hargeon for the sake of finding a child's lost puppy. She savors the meal with adorable little moans and sighs and thanks him with sparkles in her eyes.

When their team takes a request on Mt. Hakobe, Gray brings a coat along with him so that he can chivalrously drape it around Lucy's shoulders when she begins to shiver. The abrupt replacement of whines with exclamations of affection is extremely gratifying.

He brings her flowers when she's been home working on her novel all day. They are beautiful and sweet-smelling, and he imagines that Lucy will swoon into his arms when he presents them. She opens the door with a pen and messy hair. She smiles when she sees the flowers and presses her little nose into them to inhale, but when she reemerges from the blossoms, she has a troubled look on her face. She doesn't have a free vase, she sweetly explains (because, Gray can see behind her, the only one she has is currently being used to hold a dozen red roses brought straight from the spirit world).

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_Author's Note_: I hope you enjoyed part one. Please, review! I find it difficult to write Gray, so I would love some constructive criticism on it (especially as I revise the second part)!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or ideas from Fairy Tail, nor do I make any money from this work.

**An Exercise in Futility**

Part 2 of 2

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_Warning: Here be the chapter that warrants the M rating. _

Gray calmly evaluates his situation for a week. He rationally arrives at a few conclusions: 1.) Loke might be closer to getting under Lucy's skirt than he is. 2.) Lucy is letting him get closer. 3.) Gray should probably kill Loke before he can sully Lucy's maidenly virtue (and so that Gray can do that instead).

"Should" and "probably" do not necessarily add up to "will" (especially since the target in question is, in fact, more or less immortal), so Gray decides to settle for only the last part of his third conclusion. He _will_ get under Lucy's skirt. Soon.

There is also: 4.) The thrill of competing with Loke leaves Gray almost as excited as Lucy's frequent clothing mishaps, but he doesn't like to think about that.

After some hesitation, Gray resolves to move forward slowly (he'd rather lose any contest than hurt his precious nakama, after all). So, he kisses her (only a little). Honestly, he can't really resist the first one. Lucy was being all adorable as she tried to find a mission with a favorable reward to damage ratio; she had her chin propped up with her fingers, and her pink hair ribbon had flopped over to the side like droopy little rabbit ears. He stood in front of her, and, just when she looked up at him to protest, he simply replaced her fingers with his own and swooped down for one gentle peck. He smiled, and she looked a little lost before she smiled too. Mirajane, the only witness, had giggled delightfully into her hand and run off to find Happy before the couple even noticed that she had been there.

When his intentions are clear, Lucy lets him take her out on dates-nice dates, Lucy-appropriate dates. They go to dinner and for walks in the park. Sometimes, he just takes her to the library and laughs at how cute she is when she finds a book she hasn't read. Other times they go on dates that are not exactly normal. They ice skate in spring. They get kicked out of a museum for indecent exposure. The latter did not amuse Lucy, but she reluctantly enjoyed the former despite falling on several occasions (and a suspicion that Gray purposely created situations designed to make her skirt fly up). The two become almost inseparable, and Gray sometimes found himself twirling her key to the lion's gate between his fingers while he kisses her. He likes to think of it as a form of gloating (he does not like to think of it as anything else).

Still, Gray does not feel as though he has tasted victory yet (he also hasn't tasted too much of Lucy and feels the two might be connected). He kisses her harder and more often. He often gets too quickly lost in the sweetness of her lips and the softness of her body pressed against his and is sometimes blindsided when he tastes a hint of another in the corner of her mouth. He accidentally seeks it out on more than one occasion before he reminds himself of where it probably came from.

Even then, he finds that he appreciates the variety of flavor as much as he appreciates the way that Lucy smiles at him like he's the best thing she's ever seen, and this confuses him.

Kisses turn into heated caresses and sexual tension before too long. Lucy doesn't suddenly turn into a seductive vixen (her track record in that department is far too disheartening), but as summer reaches its zenith, Gray begins to notice that Lucy becomes much more forward with her affections. It's almost too much for him to keep up with. He'd still been simply savoring the feeling of her body pressed against his when he realizes that the thing she was doing with her fingertips made him need her naked and moaning as soon and often as possible. He chooses to ignore the way that she smiles at him when she does it, like she already knows the effect her fingers will have on a man's skin.

Finally (and not a moment too soon—an ice mage is not meant to stand such prolonged heat), Lucy lets him under her skirt.

She blushes only a little, and, when she squirms towards his fingers rather than shyly withdrawing into the mattress, Gray is more than slightly surprised. In fact he is shocked and dumbfounded. There is a large difference between the hint of another's kisses and the proof of Lucy's experience. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a celestial key glowing on Lucy's bedside table. It somehow seemed smug. He had been rather foolishly underestimating his rival. Still, with Lucy laid out before him, he can hardly feel as though he has lost. Perhaps this particular competition had room for more than one victor.

It's odd, but Gray feels no need to erase the memory of Loke's touches or to mark Lucy as his own territory. It's not just because he somehow senses that he cannot do this-that Lucy's relationship with her celestial spirit exists independently of her relationship with him. He finds himself running his fingers along her skin and wondering if Loke thought she felt like silk, too. He wonders if Loke had wanted to kiss the inside of her elbow, if he had given in and made Lucy moan while doing it. Had she said Loke's name like she'd moaned Gray's?

He smirks at the newly discovered challenge and is determined to make sure that the lion spirit will have to work extra hard if he wants Lucy to scream louder than Gray will be making her tonight.

He decides to skip the pre-show; Lucy doesn't need as many encouraging caresses to persuade her to accept his touch. She moans as he slides two fingers inside of her at once, he wiggles his fingertips so they brush against her in all the right places. Before she can adjust to the pleasure, he's pressing his tongue against her. She's moaning and squirming now, and, when he gazes up, her eyes are closed tight and her cheeks are flushed. It looks as though she might be trying to hold back, so he calls her name, low as only he can say it and into her skin. He uses a little bit of his special brand of magic, and Lucy moans suddenly and sounds like she's surprised. Gray puts a point in his column; Loke clearly hadn't made her feel _that_ before.

Lucy brings his attention back where it belongs when she freezes mid-squirm and shudders just a bit as her eyes fall open. He smirks against her; evidently, the sight is too much, as her eyes squeeze closed again while her mouth opens wide in ecstasy. He hasn't stopped moving his fingers inside of her, and he savors the feeling of her body clenching around them.

When Lucy cries out his name, Gray feels an immense surge of pride. He almost wants to gloat in the direction of her golden keys. Before he has a chance to even look in that direction, Lucy's hands are gripping his shoulders in a style more reminiscent of her alter ego in Edolas. He finds himself suddenly in Lucy's arms and between her legs. She wraps her thighs around his hips and practically begs him with her warm brown eyes. Her blonde hair is spread across the pillow like a halo, except for the errant strands that cling to her neck or around her face. He suddenly cares less about making Loke profoundly envious and more about staring into the depths of Lucy's eyes as he makes her flush; he's profoundly grateful that she never makes expressions by halves.

He moans into her ear as he pushes himself inside her. He cannot help it. He can only hope that it sounds manly and arousing. Lucy pushes herself further around him and he cannot help but moan again-despite other evidence, she certainly doesn't feel like this isn't her first time.

Gray's never been with a girl with such ample breasts, and he's easily distracted by how they move with each thrust. He resolves to spend hours worshipping them at some point (he wonders what creative things Loke might have done with them).

For a while there is only rhythm, waves of pleasure rising and falling with each shift of one or the other's hips. There is very little thinking, only feeling; Lucy has that effect. Gray feels only warmth and perfection and pleasure. He growls into Lucy's ear as he snaps his hips and buries himself as deeply inside of her as he possibly can. Some part of him wants to slam his hands together like Ur taught him so that he can anchor Lucy in place and trap himself inside of her. Lucy's entire body clenches like she agrees with the sentiment.

In the aftermath, they breathe. Gray lays his head between Lucy's breasts; he smiles into the soft flesh. He can't see it, but Lucy smiles sweetly to herself as she wraps her arms around Gray's back. She nuzzles his hair a little bit when she regains motor control. Gray feels loved. In a moment they will need to meet each other's gaze. Now, they simply lie still and revel in the feeling of their higher functions blearily blinking themselves awake. They are calm and serene.

Then the clapping begins. Gray remembers something about the significance of shining keys and wonders exactly how long ago he'd seen one light up. Lucy blushes but isn't sure that she is really embarrassed (she'd been dreading bringing up this conversation). Loke smirks because he's going to enjoy meeting this new challenge head on.

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_Author's Note: _As usual, I hope that you enjoyed and would greatly appreciate reviews and criticism! Also, I've noticed that I have a lot of love for parentheses and making Lucy a non-entity. I shall one day write from her perspective (maybe).


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